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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23086054">Memories of Pain and Comfort</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyBrooke/pseuds/LadyBrooke'>LadyBrooke</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Memory Loss, Recovered Memories</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 11:34:40</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>333</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23086054</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyBrooke/pseuds/LadyBrooke</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Maedhros forgets, after his death.</p><p>Fëanor refuses to leave his son like that.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Fëanor | Curufinwë &amp; Maedhros | Maitimo</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>67</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Memories of Pain and Comfort</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Written for B2MeM 2020, March 9th, Prompt "They had begun to forget: forget their own beginnings and legends, forget what little they had known about the greatness of the world.” (Unfinished Tales, Part Three, III, The Quest of Erebor).</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Maitimo!"</p><p>The spirit flinched away from that word. </p><p>That name, he thought with growing panic, that name that may no longer be mine. </p><p>"Maitimo!" The voice continued to shout. He would not, could not answer it. </p><p>"Maitimo," the voice said, right in front of him. "My beloved son, you need not hide like this."</p><p>Maedhros - that name was safe, that name belonged to the corpse burning in lava and the tortured elf that hung from a mountain - shut his eyes.</p><p>"Maitimo," the voice was softer now, coaxing and gentle. "Maitimo, it will be alright."</p><p>He wanted to scream, but his throat still felt too burned to do so. Instead, he stilled, as the other reached out, wrapping him in spectral arms and holding him close.</p><p>The other spirit was warm. It reminded him of fire, not the kind that had burnt him at the end, but the safety of one in a hearth in a home (and that was a new thought too, one he had not permitted himself in all his time here).</p><p>"Good, Nelyafinwë," the other said. </p><p>He flinched at this new name too. It was too much - </p><p>The spirit held him still. "I know, Maitimo, I know. You have suffered greatly, and you have forgotten much in your suffering, but you will remember. It will hurt, but I will be here for you."</p><p>"I," his throat seized around the first word he had spoken since his death. "I- I do not want-"</p><p>"I do not want you to hurt more either, but you must. But I will be here for you this time - Ata will not leave you," the spirit muttered.</p><p>"Ata," Maedhros said, clinging as his mind flooded with the memories of an elfling clinging to his father's leg after a fall in the forge. </p><p>"I know, Maitimo," Fëanáro said, and it hurt to drag that name back into his mind. "I love you, child, we will take as much time as we need for your memories to return."</p>
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